I prefer to see message in a topic with the latest at the top, ie post order direction is "descending"

However this has the odd effect of renumbering the messages every time one is added to the topic, the the latest one becomes #1 and all the other numbers are shuffled down.

This is not only annoying as counter-intuitive, but also makes it impossible to refer to individual messages by number. I would have thought that the chronological numbering of messages in a topic should be fixed.

Personally, i prefer the order as it stands, with the original post 1 first, and subsequent and additional posts going down.
The major benefit is to ensure a new reader of that thread can progress down to the most recent.

It is the way in which you read a book or written article. Top to bottom.

The other way, with most recent post first, can be somewhat problematic, and degrade new posts if that contributor has not bothered to see all earlier posts.
There is less likelihood of them getting a good overall view.

Yes Sean, that's the nice thing about having a choice between "ascending" and "descending" view, to suit different tastes. However, in my preferred "descending" view, this message is about to become Message #1, that is until someone replies, then theirs will be #1. If the message numbers could "stick", that would be better for all.

The message numbering is provided by a plugin and as you've discovered it's only geared up for reading messages 'top-down'. There's very little I can do to change it as I'm not a programmer!

My own preference is to have messages ascending, with the latest entry at the end of the thread - I don't know of any forums that are different. In a long thread you can quickly reach your last unread message by clicking the wee flag symbol beside the message title.

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